Making the NHL better for everyone
Group aiding diversity, inclusion efforts
Players of color from the NHL have helped to form a new group to tackle the league’s challenges with diversity and inclusion.
Members of the group, the Hockey Diversity Alliance, said they were inspired by Colin Kaepernick, a former NFL quarterback who knelt during the playing of the national anthem to protest social injustice against African Americans. They spoke to him and got advice, representatives of the alliance said.
Two of its leaders, Akim Aliu, a former NHL player, and Evander Kane, a San Jose forward, said the group of seven would operate independent of the league, try to make the game more socioeconomically inclusive and, in Kane’s words, “eradicate racism and intolerance in hockey” through community outreach and youth engagement. “It was incumbent on us seven to get together and try to put our heads together on how to try to create, promote and manufacture real change when it comes to racism in our sport and racism in society as well.”
Though the group will operate separately from the NHL, Kim Davis, the league’s executive vice president for social impact hopes it would work collaboratively in the future.
“We are supportive of all efforts that are intended to advance the role of our sport in society,” Davis said in an email. “We are hopeful that this alliance will collaborate with our NHL structured council and committees — particularly the Players Inclusion Committee — to bring ideas for change.”
Other players of color joining Aliu and Kane in the alliance are Minnesota defenseman Mathew Dumba; Detroit defenseman Trevor Daley; Buffalo forward Wayne Simmonds; Chris Stewart, a forward in the American Hockey League; and Joel Ward, a retired NHL winger.
Stung by several instances of racism, the NHL has tried to promote diversity in recent years, but the number of black players remains relatively small. The first black player in the NHL, Willie O’Ree, didn’t take the ice until 1957, and since then, only about 100 black players have dressed for at least one game in the league. At least 30 black players have been on teams since the 2016-17 season, when a record four black players were named All-Stars. Still, few team captains have been black.
There are no black head coaches in the NHL
A major goal of the Hockey Diversity Alliance will be mentorship, giving younger players who are members of minority groups a chance to learn from the likes of Kane and Aliu.
“We feel that we can be a great outlet for minority players all the way down to youth hockey coming up through the junior ranks and coming into pro with any issues they might be going through, whether that’s race-related or anything else,” Kane said. “I think having a group like us to lean on for experience, advice, thoughts or different ideas will empower them.”
Aliu and Kane said they felt emboldened after talking to Kaepernick, who declined comment.
“Our mission and goal is to make the game as diverse and inclusive as possible,” Aliu said. “It’s so that someone from any type of background, whether it’s economical, race, gender, gets to feel included in our game and feel like they’re wanted.”